Matsuyama and Johnson lead on course providing major obstacles

JAPAN’S Hideki Matsuyama opened with an eagle and matched Dustin Johnson in shooting a one-under 69 to share the lead after the third round of the US PGA’s BMW Championship.

Johnson, coming off a 30under-par score and an 11-shot victory a week ago at the Northern Trust, shared a twostroke edge with Matsuyama at one-under 209 through 54 holes at Olympia Fields in suburban Chicago.

“This is pretty much a major championship venue and the conditions, the way it’s set up, it’s playing just like a major,” Johnson said.

It was the highest score to lead in the event since 1974. Not since the 1995 Tour Championship has par or higher won a title outside the majors, but it could be in the cards on this former US Open layout.

“It really doesn’t matter how far away you are, you’ve just got to be in the fairway,” Johnson said. “That’s the only way to control the ball and even then it’s still difficult to get it close to the hole.”

The tournament is the second of three tour playoff events. The top 30 on season points after Sunday’s final round advance to next week’s Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta.

Matsuyama has not won in more than three years, since the 2017 WGC Bridgestone Invitational, but boosted his chances by blasting out of a greenside bunker into the cup from 37 feet at the first hole.

A four-foot birdie putt at the fourth pushed him to three-under, but bogeys at the par-3 sixth and eighth and par-4 10th dropped him back.

Australia’s Adam Scott, Canadian Mackenzie Hughes and Chile’s Joaquin Niemann shared third on 211.

Four-time major winner Rory McIlroy and Spain’s Jon Rahm were on 212.